Once we were settled and developed a routine, I was quickly charmed by our new home. It was good & we were as happy as we could be with such a whirlwind change. Robert and Allison visited and we were heartened by friends and the knowledge that once we formed a community we could really make a home here.

However, as time went on it became clear to us that this was not a place to build a new home. There is no community to be had. It isn't just us either, we've spoken to several others, of varying ages and circumstances, who can't find a niche here either. More and more we feel justified in our decision to move, again.

In all this though, I've been trying to enjoy the time we still have here. It is beautiful, after all, and the only thing to do is make the most of the situation.

Until yesterday.

The bunnies were completely out of pellets & Brunswick was begging like he'd never done before. He clearly thought he was going to starve to death, despite the hay and vegetables I kept shoving in his face.

My options were to go myself on the bus or wait on Andy to get off work and go to the store. Andy's shop has extended hours for the holiday weekend and he doesn't get home until nearly 8 o'clock after a 13+ hour day. It hardly seemed fair to ask him to make a stop, plus, like I said, Brunswick thought he was starving.

So, yesterday afternoon, I bundled up and headed out. There is a bus stop at the end of our street, so I didn't have to walk far, but the wind was so strong, and I was being pelted in the face with snow because of it. I had hardly gotten out of our complex parking lot before my instincts told me I should turn around and just give Brunswick some more carrots. I didn't though. Stubbornly, I trudged on because I'd made my mind up and I was going to go to the store.

I got to the intersection and all I had left to do before I reached the shelter of the bus stop was cross the street. It's a three way stop, there were two cars at two of the stop signs already and the other had a mini van approaching it. I was a pedestrian and everyone had to stop, so I proceeded to cross the intersection.

The road was icy and I was walking carefully. Suddenly, the approaching mini van, not yet stopped, honked it's horn at me. I looked the driver in the face and mouthed, "You have a stop sign!" She proceeded to roll through the stop sign, stop in the middle of the intersection, roll down her window and say, "I know! I'm sliding & I didn't want to hit you." The wind was still blowing and I was frozen so I just said ok and continued walking to the bus stop. However, I would have liked to point out the following things to her:

1) If she hadn't been going too fast in the first place, she could have stopped at the stop sign that I know she saw because it was a straight stretch of road and the stop sign has FLASHING RED LIGHTS ON IT. If you drive on ice like you do in normal conditions, of course you are going to slide. (That idea doesn't seem to have sunk in with a lot of people around here. Even the ones who have crashed multiple times.)

2) Clearly she wasn't sliding too bad since she managed to stop her van in the middle of the intersection to explain why she honked at me.

3) If she had hit me, even though she was so courteous as to honk at me, it still would have been her fault for driving like and ass on the ice.

Ahem, moving on. I stood in the bus shelter listening to the wind and waiting, thinking that any moment the shelter was going to fall apart and collapse on me. At least, that's what it sounded like. I'm not kidding when I say the wind was brutal.

The bus came, I got on, it was packed with skiers going home at the end of the day. I did manage to find a seat, so I took it and proceeded to thaw out, until we got to the bus station where I had to get out again and brave the arctic tundra.

The bus station is behind the strip mall where I needed to go. I started walking and for the most part there was fresh snow that had been blown onto the roads and parking lot, so it wasn't too slippery. Until I got to the back of the strip mall where it was a giant ice rink. Walking very cautiously I proceeded, but when I reached the corner of the building my feet flew out from under me and I fell, hard, onto my right hip. The impact jarred me hard enough for my head to bounce off my shoulder.

Right then and there, my love affair with winter ended. I don't mind the cold & I love the snow, but now? I'm over it. I'm over this town. OVER IT!

I stood up and continued on my journey, completing my shopping and my trip home without incident. The wind was the worst part. Also, five pounds of bunny pellets doesn't sound like a lot until you have to carry it across town. My arms feel like jello.

It doesn't really occur to you how much you use your right knee and hip until every move you make causes them to throb.